NRI bank accounts must be linked to Aadhaar to avoid blockageNRI Top Stories

The Indian tax department on Wednesday (April 12) announced that all the bank accounts, including insurance and stocks – opened between July 2014 and August 2015 have to be linked to the holders Aadhaar card by the end of April. Failure to meet the order may result in blocking the holders account.

All the account holders under ambit of the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was signed by India and the U.S. in July 2015 to weed out tax evaders, will have to self-certify themselves by submitting KYC documents (Know your customer) and their Aadhaar card number to bank accounts and financial institution by April 30th.

In a statement the Tax Department of India said that "the account holders may be informed that, in case self-certifications are not provided till April 30, 2017, the accounts would be blocked, which would mean that the financial institution would prohibit the account holder from effecting any transaction with respect to such accounts."

Although the Supreme Court has directed the government that Aadhaar cards can only be used for welfare services and not as an identification tool or a requirement for general services.

The Majority of people are concerned that the Aadhaar card and biometric analysis is not the safest tool to let someone- a government agency for agency - to identify (and track) someone.

According to the new Finance Bill the filing of income tax returns will require individuals to quote their Aadhaar number

The Aadhaar number will also be linked to their permanent account number (PAN) card or else the PAN card will be cancelled from July 1st.